Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/343

Rh of the meal with the relatives and friends whom he had invited."

The Nandi have similar beliefs. "The cult of the dead is fairly well developed. The spirit is believed to reside in the shadow and when adults die it survives. … The spirits of the departed, called oiik … are regarded as the cause of sickness, and when a Xandi is ill, it is necessary to discover and propitiate the particular ancestor who has occasioned the disaster. But they cannot be wholly malevolent, for they are invoked to protect children and absent warriors."

"Among the A-Kamba death is said to be due to the Aiimu leaving the human frame, and when a person dies his Aiimu go and live in a wild fig tree … the Aiimu will enter into the person of a woman or medicine-man, the medium will become as one possessed and will prophesy. Another aspect of the spiritual beliefs of the A-Kamba, and one which shows the intimate nature of the communion which exists in their minds between the spirits of their ancestors and the living, is demonstrated by the fact that every married woman is believed to be at the same time the wife of a living man and also the wife of some Aiimu or spirit of a departed ancestor. … It is firmly believed that the fertility of the wife depends to a great extent on her spiritual husband, and if a woman does not become enceinte during the first six months after her marriage they consider that her particular Aiimu is neglecting her, and they make an offering of beer and kill a goat as propitiatory, and if that fails a few months later make a bigger feast and kill a bullock. … If a woman bears quickly after marriage they are very pleased because they consider that she has found favour in the eyes of her Aiimu."